2002 Eastern CFO Convention Dayton

It was the first full two-day convention for CFO, and looked like it would be a lot of fun. With the extensive planning and leadership of Ev Lake, the plan was set for a full day of technical discussion and a second day of touring Dayton.

Sure enough, at the appointed hour the Flyers started to flock together. The signs were clear well in advance, as we started hearing Cardinals in the frequency along the way. We landed 2nd in a group that arrived about the same time.. not all Cardinals, but certainly mostly Cardinals.

One attendee later reported a conversation with Cleveland Approach, who offered greetings to everyone at 'that Cardinal flying that everyone is headed to.' It can only help to have friends in high places.

We taxied in to the warm welcome of a follow-me Jeep, which led us down a long double line of Cardinals to a tie-down at the end.

Several airplanes were familiar, as were several people, and it was clear that they were already enjoying this lovely day. The jeep carried our gear up to the FBO office and we were up and running!

Ev had made excellent choices, the hotel was clean and friendly and almost completely populated with Cardinal pilots. In the end only a couple of Flyers ended up at different hotels.

The Yankee Mill put on a cheese, snack and wine-sampler welcome for us, and the room was full when we arrived. One we had polished off a good share of that most of us wandered across the parking lot to a very nice restaurant for supper. We held one table for a couple of hours, with new arrivals taking the place of departures, and a few diehards closed the place down in the lounge.

Ev and his son staffed the shuttle vans, and several Flyers shared space in their rental cars to get the group back to the airport. We walked around and inspected several interesting aircraft while watching new arrivals.

As usual, the aircraft were far from the normal slice of the aviation population. There was new paint, new radios, new interiors and a level of spit and polish that one just never sees at the airport.

Ideas were exchanged about a variety of subjects, from interior sources to door handle options. We looked at a few technical details, like flap extension and stab wobble, but most of the morning was devoted to upgrades and improvements.

At one point we set out to find a loose stab for everyone to shake. We went down a full row without finding one that was substantially loose.. we're all doing a lot better at keeping them tight! Finally we found one, and everyone got a chance to see what we're looking for.

A few people wandered down to the Wright Flyer museum, and some discovered that it was possible to get an actual flight in a Wright airplane! I'm not certain which year model this was, but it was the one where the occupants sat fairly upright.

The ride was a short one: it flew only the length of the runway, never turning from a straight line. It was great to see it fly, and to see the happy smiles of those who choose to invest in the ride of a lifetime.

This picture above is of one of our group getting her hop. A Cardinal Flyer in the Wright Flyer.. somehow it seems very appropriate.

The afternoon tech session, pictured below, seemed to go in a flash. For some reason, all you need to do is take the cowl off an airplane and Paul and I seem to be able to talk for some time.

It was a little warm in the sun, but there was no lack of attention as we ran down a list of little details that fell to eye. The finer points of baffling, cooling, routing of hoses and a number of 'watch points' for wear items were reviewed.

As usual, the airplane being inspected was in excellent shape, but the owner still wrote down a page and a half of 'things to do' in the process.

At this event we spent an almost equal time on a fixed gear Cardinal, although this one had an immediate problem: a recent oil change from a high-budget shop had resulted in the longer screws being put into the inner cowl locations.

We've all seen what this can do to a prop spinner backplate, but the one also bunged up the screw enough that it would not come out of the cowl. We left that for the oil change shop to work through, and spent our time on more external details.

It was fun for us, and the attendees seemed to be soaking it up. It's always hard to get everyone close enough to the parts to see everything.. perhaps we need to spend more time and go more slowly next time, or otherwise adjust so everyone can get the full measure of learning.

Our banquet was an evening that I don't think any of us will soon forget. The location was excellent, the food was tasty and the company was outstanding.

But the real memorable event was Betty Darst, who told the story of the Wrights in the person of Katherine Wright. Her store of unique pictures and the intimate details that supported them were just a backdrop to the joy and enthusiasm she had for the family and the subject matter.

In the process we learned that one of our group, John Root, is the grandson of a person who had a role in the flights. He shared his grandfathers story as Betty wove it into her performance, an evening to remember. We will have pictures of this evening in the future.

Saturday dawned bright and clear with promise of heat by mid-day. To our amazement the bus company failed to arrive as scheduled, but we had a backup plan in place by then and events rolled smoothly on. It was an interesting experience to walk into a rental car place with a line of volunteer drivers, hand a credit card to the lady and say 'give all these people cars to drive.'

I was impressed by the can-do spirit of the Flyers, who sorted themselves into the cars and vans already available, and pitched in to drive the ones we quickly acquired. Shortly we were all at the Air Force museum, nearly on schedule and none the worse for the wear.

This also provided flexibility, as some folks chose to stay at the museum for the full day. Over a box lunch and killer brownies, the group re-sorted again to see that no one was left without a ride. Even a small set that needed to get back to the airport were accommodated with ease.

Carrilon Park was a very interesting historical site, a good place to learn of the history of Dayton. We were impressed to learn the story of the first battery ignition systems and the story of the floods in the early 1900s.

And, of course, there was the Wright bicycle shop replica and the actual 1905 Flyer. An interesting presentation told the story of the first flights, and the actual tools and artifacts were amazing to behold. It was a very interesting visit, enjoyed by the adults as well as the kids in attendance.

Supper at the Peerless Mill was very pleasant. We compared notes on the day and conversed with new friends. A few lucky people got a late night concert from Joe Rizzi, who turned out to be an accomplished pianist.

The morning after was a blur of packing, wrap-ups and a few technical glitches. One mag didn't wake up properly and a starter solenoid failed to respond (curiously a failure mode also experienced in New York.) A few of us had to penetrate lines of thunder to get home, but in the end all was (or will be) well.

In the end, the consensus was that it was an excellent weekend. It was fun for us to see and experience the growing relationships between and among the flyers, and those who took a moment to offer feedback had really enjoyed themselves.

If you were there, we'd like to hear from you below. You may offer public or private feedback as you choose.

Even if you were not there, if you have suggestions for making it easier for you to attend, drop us a private note below and we'll consider your thoughts in the future.

Thanks again to all who pitched in to help, all who attended and especially to Ev Lake who put the plan together. We'll see you again next year! Or, for those on the west coast, we look forward to a similar event at Concord on October 4-5.

Keith Peterson
CFO Webmaster

The following comments about the flyin have been entered:

It was great to have you all in attendance. Thanks for all your help and support. We look forward to doing it again next year! Keith and Debbie Peterson

I really enjoyed my first CFO wingding. Good people; good food and entertainment; new sights; and bunches of Cardinal facts and lore. And; since flying is the continuous evaluation of "plan B"; even the alternate transportation source was a chance to meet new folks. Well done to Ev Lake; Paul; Keith and Deb. Bob Pitchford

Great fly-in. Food-terrific; especially the Pierless Inn. Also enjoyed the Carillon Park and the interesting historical exhibits. Keep up the good work!

Congratulations for choosing an uncontrolled airport for the Eastern fly-in. It was much better than Cleveland. I learned a lot from the technical session.

Congratulations and a huge ATTA-BOY to all those folks who contributed their time to make the Dayton Fly-in such a success. Special thanks to Ev Lake for his extra effort to make all of us feel so welcome! Marilyn and I had a wonderful time! Tom & Marilyn Vogelpohl

As a new Cardinal owner who has not taken delivery yet;(next Thursday) The drive down from Detroit was certainly worth it. I met many Cardinal Flyers and learned a lot. Looking forward to the next opportunity to do this again. Thanks for the pleasant greeting and th warm hospitality Rick Mentz 3362T

Ev; Keith; Debbie; Cari; Michael; Paul; and Darren and the other volunteer drivers; I had a great time at the Dayton Fly-in. Arrangements for everything seemed to work out well (except for the busses; and even that worked out okay in the end with everyone pitching in); the food was good; and I picked up a few things to check out on my plane as soon as I get it home (weather diversion left the airplane in Bedford; MA; after shooting the ILS and breaking out 300' above DH) and I decided to have some radio work done while it was there). Seems everytime I turned around; Cari's smiling face was there collecting tickets! Hard not to enjoy events when they started like that. I saw Michael helping with setting stuff up also. Way go to guys! Even got my picture posted; taking a picture of a between-seats organizer. The tech talk on oil was very interesting by the folks from Blackstone Labs; with the main recommendation seeming to be fly often and change oil frequently; and which brand of oil being used not mattering all that much (I half expected Paul to jump up and counter that; but he let out not a peep!). Keith; the tickets worked out okay; but you had to do a bunch of sorting for all that. Might not a single piece of paper that could be hole-punched be a lot less effort to distribute next time? I think there were 6 tickets; but only 4 actually got used - lunch; dinner; lunch; dinner - they could be the 4 corners of a single card. If you were collecting them to determine head counts; then the individual tickets make more sense. I didn't go to Carillon Park; maybe a 5th ticket was used there. Just a thought. Looking forward to next time! Hopefully my VGs will be installed by then (a Mooney that ran off the runway at 9B1 got me bumped off the priority list in the days before I left for the fly-in.) Bob Patterson; N34634 (that's my plane in the top picture; with the blue GroundTech cover; and it's tail in the 3rd).